Ways to Use Leftover Chicken

(ranch chicken sandwiches)

So I spend a lot of time blabbing on about how we should all eat our leftovers. And we should. It doesn't matter if you're low-cal, paleo, or gluten-free. It doesn't matter if you're poor or rich. Generally we agree that we shouldn't waste perfectly good food. At least we agree in words. Statistically, we Americans waste 1/4 of our food--our perfectly good, usable food. One quarter. Can you believe it? That is like throwing away 1/4 of the clothes you buy without ever wearing them. It's like paying 200K instead of 150K for a house and then closing off 3 of the rooms and never ever using them. That means that if you spend $400 on food each month, you take a $100 bill and throw it in the trash. Crazy talk, right? Except that's what the average American does with food.

And why?

I believe that it's often simply because the average American is busy and doesn't know what to do with that handful of leftover shredded cheese or that leg of cold chicken or those nubs of cheese or those few spoonfuls of vegetables.

Consequently, I thought I'd spend a little time on the blog throwing out some ideas for how to use our leftovers. We'll start with chicken--meat tends to be the most expensive after all.

(chicken divan)

1. Stir Fry. A little oil, a few veggies, some soy sauce, and in goes that handful of random leftover chicken (also great for random leftover vegetables).

2. Fried Rice. Pretty much the same as above, except then you're going to add rice and fry it in some oil.

3. Chicken Divan. This is great when you've roasted a chicken and have leftovers, but your leftovers aren't the parts everyone likes to eat the best (surely we're not the only family with this problem). Well, take that light or dark meat, or those yummy bits from the back that can be shredded but not really served as a, well, serving. And make this. I was very surprised how much leftover meat I got off our roast chicken the next day. (This is pictured just above.)

4. Chicken wraps/tacos/burritos. This works well with plain chicken, but it's also nice because it works welly with that leftover 1/2 C of flavored chicken (BBQ, ranch, mustard, whatever) that might not have worked as well in a dish like chicken divan. Also, the nice thing about a wrap is that if you have just a bit of chicken you can still make yourself a wrap for lunch. If you have a cup or two of chicken, you can make wraps for the whole family.

5. Chicken Salad Sandwiches. A little mayo and some kind of crunchy veggie and you're set. But if you want something fancier that your whole family will never ever suspect was a leftover meal, try this Tarragon Turkey Salad (only with chicken).

6. And while we're talking chicken sandwiches... This is THE BEST sandwich ever. And you can totally rock it with leftovers. Again, if you don't have enough for four sandwiches, well, for heaven's sake, make yourself one. (This is the lovely pictured at the top of this post.)

7. Pizza with chicken. This is also a great way to use up random nubs of cheese (yes, I'm asking you to think outside the mozzarella bag--or at least to think of mixing other cheeses with it) or various raw vegetables to very good effect.

8. Chicken Pot Pie. If you don't have enough chicken for a full pot pie, you could make tiny ones in ramekins or make a sort of galette where you plop some chicken and sauce/cheese onto a crust, fold it over, and cook. Basically what I'm saying is that if you add a pie crust to chicken, good things will likely happen.

9. Cream cheese. Yeah, I don't have a recipe. All I know is that if you add cream cheese to chicken, it's a good thing. I bet you could also add other cheese and vegetables, maybe even some rice or noodles. Cook this up stove top or bake it. It'll make you a little magic.

(onion haters chicken pot pie)

A Chicken in Every Pot: Chicken 4 Ways with a recipe for Fried Rice

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch, join us, doubt or believe (not sure which side I'm on some days) as our family of 6 eats on $6/day.

1. Roast Chicken

2. Fried Rice

3. Chicken Soup (or fish stew with chicken broth)

4. Ranch Chicken Pizza

Around about the Great Depression--a time when the banks failed along with people's fortunes and farms, a time of uncertainty, joblessness, and hunger, a time which was sandwiched between 2 world wars, President Herbert Hoover promised the American people a chicken in every pot--a promise that he was largely criticized for not fulfilling. I know this from the musical "Annie"--'not only don't we have the chicken; we ain't got the pot' (the stage version, not the movie version), but my mom (who probably learned this historical tidbit in history class) reminded me of it in a recent phone conversation.

It got me thinking. Really thinking. Until a little over a year ago, I had never purchased or roasted or slow cooked a full chicken in my life. Nor had I seen my mother do so. I did not even know how. The only reason I even decided to give it a whirl was that I decided I wanted to buy humanely raised meats. Which are more expensive. But if I bought a whole fryer (which were much cheaper per pound) and learned to use the whole thing and make a broth I could make up for the extra money we would be spending. Which has proved to be quite true. It's opened my eyes to many things--like how awesome and fairly easy roasting a chicken can be. But it's also made me see that in my and my mother's generation there has been an interesting cultural shift. When I asked my mom why she'd never roasted a chicken, she said that when you roast a chicken you end up with all the fatty parts. In my family and I think in many/most families in that low-fat craze of the '80s and '90s, there was a push--maybe we should call it a shove--from the health industry and perhaps the food industry. People were told/taught/brainwashed to eat the lower fat white meats. Additionally, it was much easier to buy a boneless, skinless breast, or any chicken cut into parts. Or so we were told/taught/brainwashed. Which of course has paved the way for those freakishly breasted chickens and all that sort of thing that I will leave Michael Pollen and others to tell you all about. But at least we have our national health. Oh wait, we don't.

So maybe we should re-examine the humble roast chicken and all the freaking awesome foods that can be made therefrom.

1. First we're going to start with The Best Roast Chicken I Have Ever Made or Had. It's from smittenkitchen, and it, like Mary Poppins, is practically perfect in every way. It's also a breeze to make. Except that you have to think in advance. Which I admit can be a challenge. I didn't quite think of it enough in advance so instead of doing the salt rub for 1-3 days, I brined my frozen bird overnight with 1/4 C salt and 1/4 C sugar and then rinsed it and then dried it and then did the salt rub for about 4 hours before I cooked it Sunday afternoon. I cannot stress how perfectly amazing it, its drippings, and its broth has been. Perfection.

The next day we had leftovers plain and simple. After that I pulled off as much chicken as possible, which was still quite a lot (probably about 1 1/2 C) and put that in the fridge. From the bones, skin, and whatever bits I missed, I made a stock. Go here for instructions on how to do so. It takes 30-60 minutes, but is mostly just the stuff simmering. You'll be actually doing something for about 5-10 minutes.

2. From that stock I made the fish stew you met earlier this week. You could have omitted the fish and used 1/2 C of the saved chicken bits instead to make a chicken soup.

3. Ranch Chicken Pizza. We plan to make this on Monday using abot 1/2 -1 C shredded chicken that remains. It is super yum.

4. Fried Rice. We made this yesterday. Using leftover shredded chicken, it is cheap eatery at its best. If you've got some leftover rice and vegetables, it's also one of the fastest meals you can make. We had a bit of leftover rice and no vegetables. It still took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

Chicken Fried Rice
Serves 4-6
Prep time: 10 minutes (vegetable chopping)
Cook time: 30 minutes (the rice must cook and then you need to add it to the veggie stuff and fry it)
Cost: $1.30
(chicken: .25, rice: .25, vegetables: .30, soy sauce/spices: .25, oil: .05, eggs: .20)

1-2 C dry rice (2-4 C cooked rice)--we used half brown (leftovers) and half white (which I cooked)
1/2 C shredded chicken
1 C chopped vegetables (we used broccoli from the stalk and 2 large carrots, but peas, asparagus, leeks, onions, celery, spinach, bok choy, and lots of other vegetables will work too)
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder, or 1 clove
1/4 C soy sauce
1 Tbsp plum sauce or oyster sauce (plum for sweeter, oyster for savory)
2-4 Tbsp oil
2 eggs

Note: If your chicken isn't cooked, cube a piece of it and cook it in 1 Tbsp oil, a dash of ginger, dash pepper, dash garlic powder, dash onion powder.

Heat oil in large skillet or wok. Add ginger, onion powder, and garlic and cook about 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add vegetables with about 1 Tbsp soy sauce. Cook to desired tenderness.

Remove vegetables and set aside. Fry 2 eggs in a bit of oil with some soy sauce. Remove eggs and set aside.

Heat remaining oil in skillet. Add rice and fry for 3-4 minutes, tossing it around in the oil and letting it sizzle. Add remaining soy sauce (start with 1 Tbsp and add the other 1-2 Tbsp if you feel you need them). Add plum or oyster sauce. Throw in chicken, vegetables, and eggs and mix in. If you need more soy sauce or other seasonings, add them. Serve nice and warm.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

And the next time you're trying to eat really cheap and your husband says he needs more meat, get yourself a humanely treated chicken and roast that lovely up. Just don't forget to use it all.

Is Instapot your thing? Check out these recipes. 

One Pot Curried Chicken with Coconut Rice

Coconut milk and I have a sort of love affair. We met later in life after years dating that boring old skim milk, which my parents totally approved of. Skim milk, parents? Seriously? Thank goodness we don't do arranged marriages in this country. I haven't seen skim milk in ages and I don't intend to ever again (his handsome older brother, cream, well, that's another story; and raw whole milk and I are totally friends). But anyway, enough metaphors with sordid milk references. This recipe is seriously good. The chicken's great. The rice is great--coconut rice, where have you been all my life?. It's a one-pot meal that's fairly easy to put together. The coconut milk gives it a creamy, hint-of-sweet,-while-still-feeling-wholesome-and-good kind of taste, which I love.

Here's what you do:

One Pot Curried Chicken with Coconut Rice
Adapted from The Bad Girl's Kitchen (which adapted it from Everyday Food)
Serves 6-10
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 50-60 minutes
Cost: $8.65 (that's about $.86/serving)
chicken: 6.00, curry powder: .25, garlic: .10, onion: .20, tomato paste: .10, coconut milk: 1.50, rice: .50

Note: I halved this as I do with many new recipes. It made plenty for our family, but we're not huge eaters. If you guys are big eaters or have older kids, make the full recipe. Halving it made it easier to cook the chicken all at once and reduced the cooking time somewhat for the recipe. I liked that.

Note on chicken: You can use a whole chicken cut up or dark or light meat; I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts because Kip likes them better and because they cook faster than chicken on the bone.

4 lb chicken
4 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (ours was closer to 1/4)
salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive)
5 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp minced garlic (about a 3 inch piece)
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 C rice (I used boring old white)
1 can coconut milk (the cheap stuff is okay in this recipe)
2 C water
fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 350. Toss chicken with curry powder, cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt. Heat oil in a Dutch oven (what I used) or another oven-safe pot (with an oven-safe lid). Cook chicken until browned on all sides. It should be nearly done, though it doesn't have to be cooked entirely through because you'll be cooking it more. Note: If you want this meal faster, cut your chicken into strips or pieces. If you have large breasts, thighs or whatever (by which I mean not you personally, but the chicken with whom you have chosen to work), it could add an extra 30 minutes of cooking time to this recipe. So if you want a 45-minute meal, then cut your meat into strips.

While your chicken is cooking, grate/mince your garlic, ginger, and onion (I always grate my onions because Kip hates big pieces of it. Then I can grate the ginger too).

Remove chicken and set on a plate. In the remaining oil/drippings (add more oil if you need to), cook your onion for 5-6 minutes or until it's translucent. Add garlic and ginger and cook for a minute. Add tomato paste and stir till combined. Add rice, coconut milk, and stir. Add 2 cups water. Stir to combine. [Note: This makes a lightly coconut-flavored rice. If you want more coconut, try using 2 cans coconut milk and 1 C water. I haven't tried this, but fully intend to the next time I make this because I heart coconut.]

Bring this to a boil.

Reduce to simmer. Put chicken on top of rice. [Note: If your chicken has the skin on, place it with skin side up.] Cover with a lid and put in your oven for another 20-30 minutes (again--I halved the recipe--if you're making this full recipe, it could take longer--I'm guessing 40 minutes).  [Another Note: Want to decrease your cooking time? If your chicken is nearly cooked through anyway, let the rice simmer covered for a couple minutes stove top. Then add chicken and add it all to the oven. Could you do it all stovetop? Um, probably, but I haven't, so I can't make promises.] You want to cook it until the liquid is absorbed into the rice and the chicken is cooked through (160-165 degrees).

Remove from oven, add salt to taste, and serve garnished with cilantro. I suppose you should serve this with a vegetable on the side if you are a good person and whatnot, though I cannot entirely promise that we did this. I think peas would be a nice compliment, though if we ate a veggie with it, it was probably broccoli.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chicken Pot Pie

Cheap Eat Challenge: Can a family of 6 eat cheap and tasty (and pretty healthy too) on $6/day? Let's find out.

I call this "sunburst of the heart" pie, and don't even think of stealing my brilliant design because it's, like, trademarked or whatever due to the utter genius of my artistry. It's going on display next month at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so if you think it's just a dowdy pie in an old-ish looking pan with a blob of extra dough in the middle, that just shows how little you know about modern art. It also shows that I did not get one single decent picture of the cut pie. Alas.

So we got our dreary rainy day. Perfect for chicken pot pie. If it's hot in your neck of the woods, I feel confident that more chilly/rainy/drearyness will come and go before things level out. So put this in your back pocket and maybe freeze some of the leftover meat from your next roast chicken. Because chicken pot pie is an excellent leftover meal.

Which is a lot of the appeal. If you have a little chicken and some broth or drippings, plus some vegetables--even if they're not the perkiest--hanging out in your refrigerator, then you just need a dough and you're good to go. We didn't have enough meat for a full sized chicken pot pie. I was going to make little ones in ramekins (which would have been lovely), but utter laziness won out and I discovered that if you simply fold the sides of your pie crust down a bit, you can make them fit whatever size fillings you've got. Add the sunburst of heart design, and you've got yourself a winner.

Chicken Pot Pie
adapted from The New Best Recipe
Serves 4-8
Prep time: 10 minutes (if chicken already made; otherwise, you'll need an extra 20 minutes to boil some chicken meat)
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Cost: $4.40
(crust: 1.35, chicken: 2.00, vegetables: .50, flour: .05, butter: .30, milk: .20)

Note on vegetables: Use what you've got. I used carrots, kale, and peas. But celery, potatoes, corn, beans, asparagus, mushrooms, or pretty much any vegetable would work as well.

1 recipe Basic Butter Pie Crust
1-1 1/2 lb shredded chicken (I used only 8 oz. and folded my pie crust down)
2 C chicken broth (chicken gravy will also work. I used broth and added the very flavorful drippings from the chicken I'd roasted. If you broth is weak, you may want to add 1 chicken buillion cube)
1 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped (or 1/2 tsp onion powder)
3 medium carrots, diced
1-2 large kale leaves, shredded with the ribs removed and chopped
3/4 C peas
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 C flour
1 1/2 C milk
1/2 tsp dried thyme (or 1 Tbsp fresh)
3 Tbsp lemon juice (I forgot this, but it's supposed to brighten up the color of the vegetables; Best Recipe says sherry works even better, but we never have that around so lemon juice it is)
2-3 Tbsp fresh parsley (optional)
Make the pie dough.

If not using a leftover chicken, boil your chicken until it's no longer pink. Shred the chicken.

Heat oven to 400 while you prepare the vegetables.

If using leftover vegetables, warm them before proceeding. If using raw vegetables (as I did), heat oil in large frying pan. Add onion, carrots, and any other uncooked hard vegetables (so no peas, tomatoes, spinach, or cooked stuff). Saute for a couple minutes, then add the kale stems. Saute another minute and add the kale leaves. When the leaves are wilty and the vegetables are somewhat tender (but not mushy or overly soft). Salt and pepper to taste and take the vegetables off the heat and set them aside with the shredded chicken.

Heat butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook about a minute. Add chicken broth, any drippings you have, milk, and thyme. Bring to simmer and simmer until the sauce thickens (probably 1-2 minutes). Stir in lemon juice if using.

Pour sauce over chicken/vegetable mixture. Add any soft vegetables (peas, tomatoes, corn from a can, cooked leftover veggies, etc.) Add parsley if using. Stir and add salt and pepper if needed. (You can do this early and keep it in the fridge till dinner if you wish. Just warm the mixture before pouring in the pie crust.)

Pour mixture into pie crust. Cover with second pie crust and seal the edges. Cut vents in the dough, add the leftover blobs of dough in artistic and beautiful ways, as seen above.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until the pasty is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let it sit for a few minutes and then cut right in and serve.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chicken de la Gaynor

(another night-time picture--please forgive)

Gloria Gaynor (as in "I Will Survive") has just released a new book that is a compilation of essays of people who have survived various struggles. I happen to have written one of those essays. My essay is about seeing my mother a few months before she died of a brain tumor.

So if you're looking for an inspirational read, check it out. It's called We Will Survive. You can find it here.

The publicist for Ms. Gaynor's book asked the contributors if they had any blogs, etc. where they could promote the book. I'd be happy to, I said, but I just have a food blog. Well, lo and behold Gloria Gaynor eats; she even cooks. They sent me this recipe for me to include in the blog. I thought that was pretty cool.

The even better thing was that the recipe was yummy and easy. It can be made whole food style or pantry staples style. It can be made in the oven or in the crock pot. It is very adaptable, as I learned by having not quite the right ingredients for one thing and accidentally forgetting to add something else (that's how dinner rolls around here).

It's a perfect little recipe for putting dinner on the table through the craziness that can be December.

Chicken de la Gaynor
from Gloria Gaynor
serves 6
prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30-40 minutes
Cost: $5.90
chicken: 4.00, cream of chicken soup: .50, mushrooms: .60, sour cream: .50, other: .30

2 lb chicken (Gloria recommends wings; I only had breasts, so that's what I used)
10 oz cream of chicken soup (I made my own chicken white sauce)
3 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained (I had regular mushrooms, which I cooked in a bit of butter)
8 oz sour cream (okay--I managed to get that one right)
1/4 C whole milk
1/4 C cooking sherry (forgot; it was still delicious)

I cut my large chicken breasts into strips. You can just leave it at that and throw them in the oven with salt and pepper, but I like to brown mine in some olive oil or butter first. To do this: Heat olive oil in skillet, add breasts (with salt and pepper), and cook the breasts until they're browned. They don't need to be cooked through. They're going in the oven. (Note: You can totally skip all this browning and throw them in the oven, but I like to do this with chicken breasts because I think it adds more flavor).

Heat oven to 425. Throw breasts in the oven (you know in a pan and stuff).

While the chicken bakes, you're going to pour cream of chicken soup and sour cream in a pan and heat it. Then you'll add the milk, sherry, and mushrooms. When the chicken is just barely cooked through (20-40 minutes depending on how big your chunks of chicken are--I always just cut into the fattest one to check it). Pour soup mixture over chicken, return to oven, and cook fifteen more minutes.

We served it over rice with broccoli on the side and it was delicious. We ate all the chicken and the next day I just had sauce and mushrooms over rice, which was also delicious.

Potential adaptations:

Crock Pot: I have not done this, but I am 99.9% sure it will work. Just throw everything in the crock. Eight hours on low; 4 on high. Done.

Homemade: You'll notice above that I was missing several canned ingredients. It wasn't a problem. For the cream of chicken soup, I made a simple white sauce. Here's how: Melt 2 Tbsp butter. Whisk in 2 Tbsp flour. Cook one minute. Whisk in 1 C milk and 1 tsp chicken granules (one cube bullion). Stir until it just starts to boil and thicken.
-For the mushrooms, just slice and cook in butter until they're lightly browned.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Baked Parmesan Chicken (with Eggplant Adaptation)

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

Have a look at our giveaway here and join in.

I've also updated Costs and Menus and am considering doing Jean's Food Journal again.

Recently, a friend gave me a couple of gorgeous eggplants. Which is one of the things I love about southern Indiana. We're not really the south, but we're just at the edge of it. We have (usually) mild winters with an ice storm here and there to keep it real; and (usually) long summers or forgiving falls or a sweet combination of both. Now if we could just grow some hills and get rid of the chiggers and mosquitoes, and maybe add a few sidewalks here and there--that, that would be heaven. But I digress.

So my friend gave me some eggplants and I knew I wanted to make eggplant Parmesan. I also knew that Kip would not eat eggplant Parmesan, at least without being paid copious amounts of money.

So I compromised. One of the great things about compromise is that it's usually good on both ends (or, I guess, bad on both ends). But in this case it was good on both ends. Though I still say that my end was better.

Which brings me to one final point: If you've never tried eggplant, this is an awesome dish to begin with. It's really really hard not to like.

Baked Parmesan Chicken with Eggplant Adaptation
adapted from 365 Ways To Cook Chicken: Simply The Best Chicken Recipes You'll Find Anywhere
Makes 9x13 inch pan
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Cost: $5.50-6.50 with chicken, and--oh, look how much cheaper with eggplant; wow--$1.50 if you have a good friend; otherwise $3.50 or so during eggplant season)
(chicken: 4.00-5.00, butter: .20, Parmesan: .50, milk: .15, Swiss: .50, bread crumbs: .15)

Note: I know this sounds like it doesn't have enough seasonings in it, but trust the cheeses (and butter and salt and pepper). This dish has tons of flavor.

4 large breasts chicken, cut into smaller strips (or, of course, strips of chicken)
3 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper
1/2 C grated Parmesan (Romano works too)
2 Tbsp flour
1 C milk
1/2 C shredded Swiss cheese (Swiss is awesome in this, but if you don't have it, you can use mozzarella to very good effect)
1/4 C bread crumbs

Note: Bread crumbs can be homemade by putting stale bread in the blender and pulsing until crumb-y. I used a combination of white and whole wheat because that's what I had around.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large frying pan, melt butter over medium heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken. Add chicken to pan and cook, turning once the bottom side is golden brown. Cook until the other side is golden.

While the chicken is cooking, grease a 9x13 inch pan and sprinkle 1/4 C of the Parmesan cheese over it (I generally use a little less on the bottom--2-3 Tbsp--and then use a little more on top.)

When chicken is golden, set it on the Parmesan in the pan.

You should have some drippings left in your pan. If you don't, or if they're sparse, add 1-2 Tbsp more butter. Swirl that around. Whisk in flour and swirl around. Whisk in milk (I love a flat whisk here) and cook, stirring constantly, utnil smooth and thick. Remove from heat and stir in Swiss or mozzarella. Pour sauce over chicken.

Top chicken with remaining 1/4 C Parmesan cheese (or 5 Tbsp). Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake for 45 minutes or until chicken is done (if using small strips, it should be done sooner than this). Note: Of course, chicken (about 170 degrees) is another great place to use your instant read thermometer...

Eggplant Adaptation:

Slice 2-3 large or 4-5 medium eggplant. I slice them into quarter inch slices (you can't peel first if you wish, but I like the color so I don't, although the skin does get a bit skin-ny on the end pieces).

Now--and this is an important and fabulous tip from America's Test Kitchen--put them in a single layer on about 3 layers of paper towels in the microwave for 7-8 minutes. This is going to dehydrate them a bit. They'll come out looking a bit shriveled and sad. Do Not Despair. This is as it should be.

Eggplant tends to suck up a lot of moisture and this microwaving keeps them from being soggy after browning in the butter and then being baked for a time. Seriously, do it. Your eggplant will come out so much better in this dish.

Now proceed with the recipe as you would with the chicken. Brown them in the butter until both sides are golden. Slather them in sauce, then cheese. And bake.

As you can see from the picture up top, we baked ours right next to each other (here's to our marriage and to compromise), although if you're a vegetarian, I trust you'd want to use a different pan so the juices don't mingle.

We served ours on pasta mixed with a marinade sauce and a Caesar salad thereby.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Roasted Rosemary Chicken (with Crock Pot Option)

We made this in a crock pot for Sunday dinner. You could roast it normal style if you wanted. Your skin would come out crispier and butterier. Do you take issue with words like 'butterier?' If so, perhaps you ought to re-examine some of the limitations you've imposed on your life. Just relax and enjoy the butterier that is to be found in this world. Yes, well, un-grammar lesson and life coaching aside (because I'm, like, totally qualified for that and all), let's talk chicken.

This particular poultry started as a pert near frozen solid bird (due to my, er, re-examining of limitations and all) and was done to perfection 6 hours later. Which made me realize something: I usually cook my crock pot chickens too long. I usually cook them at least that long when thawed. They're often falling off the bone. Oh sure, they're still good and all, but this one was more juicy and tender and right. By which I mean that it had more in common with its roast sisters than my crock pot chickens usually do. Yes, it was lacking a crispy skin as any crock pot chicken will, but otherwise it was humming a roast chicken song. When you spend a good three hours at church on Sunday and don't want to come home and babysit your chicken for another 1 1/2 hours (roasting a chicken isn't hard; it just takes time), that can be a pretty good tune to hum. And I don't even like the skin, so there.

Roasted Rosemary Chicken (with Crock Pot Option)
adapted from 365 Ways to Cook Chicken
Serves 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 4-6 hours in crock; 1 1/2 hours in oven
Cost: $6.25 (for chicken only; vegetables will add another $.50-1.00, which is a steal of a deal for a whole meal; wow--I've missed my calling and should be writing jingles)
chicken: $6.00, other stuff: .25

Note: This would have been even dreamier with fresh herbs, but I've managed to kill yet another rosemary plant so fresh herbs will have to wait until summer.

Another note: Whether dried or fresh, crush you herbs before sprinkling. You'll release oils and aromas that will make your food taste and smell better.

1 three-four lb whole chicken
1 tsp dried rosemary or 1 Tbsp fresh
1 tsp dried thyme or 1 Tbsp fresh
1 C white grape juice (or chicken broth with 1 tsp sugar or white wine)
salt to rub all over
pepper

Pat your chicken dry. Rub it all over with salt. Then rub it all over with the rosemary, thyme. Sprinkle on some pepper.

Place in crock pot and pour grape juice into crock. If you wish, you can add potatoes, onions, carrots or some vegetable combination that sounds good to you. If you add vegetables, don't forget to give them some of the seasoning/salt love too. (I added vegetables.)

Cook in crock pot on high for 6 hours (this is for a frozen bird with vegetables). Otherwise, cook on low for that long or on high for 3-4 hours.

To go the old fashion route and roast:

Preheat oven to 375. Rub bird with butter and then season as directed above. Place in Dutch oven or roasting pan.

Roast chicken (breast up) for 15 minutes alone. Then, if using, add vegetables and sprinkle them with more herbs and salt. Pour grape juice into pan. Roast for 1 hour 15 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 160-170 at thickest part of breast and thigh.

 PRINTABLE RECIPE

Rosemary Roast Chicken

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 eat on $6/day.

Also, check out March's menu and shopping list and see me get a wee bit anal.

And don't forget to check in Monday to see how we've done with this month's Cheap Eat Challenge (but don't check in at 7am or anything, because--underachiever announcement--it just won't be up by then).

I regret that I failed to get a picture of the final product. It was all golden-y chicken and vegetables, but I forgot all about taking pictures of finished chickens because things get a little chaotic around here at dinner time. Thus, this picture of a nearly raw bird with her raw veggies will just have to do.

Roasting a chicken takes time, but not effort. If you do it in a crockpot, you don't even have to worry about hanging around your house while it's cooking, though you do have to have the foresight to put the bird in 6 hours or so before dinner, and you will sacrifice a crispy skin, if you're the type who cares about such things.

P.S. I think if we ever get laying chickens, I'm going to name one Rosemary.

Rosemary Roast Chicken
Adapted from 365 Ways to Cook Chicken (which is 1 cent here on Amazon and a great book if you're a chicken lover. I've only tried a couple of these recipes that I didn't love.)
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 1/2 hours
Serves: 4-6 people
Cost: $8.86
(chicken: 8.00 (you can get it cheaper, but I like mine to be raised by the Amish:)), potatoes, .25, carrots, .20, apple juice: .20, butter: .06, onion: .15)

1 whole chicken (mine was just over 4 lb. I would have preferred one at 3 lb)
salt and pepper
1 tsp crushed rosemary or 4-6 sprigs of rosemary
1 Tbsp butter
2 potatoes, diced
1 onion, sliced
3 carrots, diced
1 C apple juice

Heat oven to 425. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season all over with salt and pepper (I recommend separating the skin from the breast and patting some up in there as well, but if that's super gross to you, I won't insist). Place 1/2 tsp or 1 sprig of rosemary in the cavity. Rub butter over the skin. Place in roasting pan or Dutch oven (I used a Dutch oven.) The oven rack should be at the lower middle position.

Roast chicken for 15 minutes. In the meantime, chop and lightly salt your vegetables. Take chicken out and put potatoes, carrots, and onions around the chicken. Sprinkle remaining rosemary over chicken and vegetables (if using sprigs, strip the needles off of the main stem and use the needles). Pour apple juice over it all. Put it back in the oven. If the pot is pretty tightly packed like mine was, leave it at 425 for another 15-20 minutes. If it's a larger roasting pan with the chicken and veggies more sprawling, leave it in at 425 for only about 10 more minutes. Reduce heat (without opening oven door) to 375. Continue roasting for about an hour or until an instant read thermometer reads between 160 and 180. (You want to test the breast at the thickest point and thigh at the thickest point.)

Let rest covered for about 15 minutes. We served it with a green salad.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

The next night we had leftovers with this yummy rice from Kalyn's Kitchen.

Ranch Chicken Sandwiches

Way back when I started this blog over a year ago, one of the first things I planned to post were these sandwiches. Because they're awesome. And then I didn't and then the Cheap Eat Challenge came and we couldn't afford to make them and then I kind of forgot about them. Until a week ago when I threw some Ranch dressing on some chicken in a skillet. Suddenly I remembered them. Suddenly I wanted them. Desperately.

Now you can desperately want them too. You're welcome.

P.S. Don't let the chicken breasts and spinach deceive you. This isn't low-fat.

Ranch Chicken Sandwiches
Makes 4 sandwiches
Prep and cook time: 20-30 minutes
Cost: $4.70 plus what you pay for buns--$5.50
(chicken: 3.00, bacon: .50, ranch: .70, spinach: .50)

Note: One of the great things about this recipe is that you can use leftover chicken in it if you've got it--it'll still suck up the flavors of the sauce. If you don't have it, don't despair, because this is still uber fast to make.

Note on Ranch dressing: You can probably use any kind of Ranch dressing to good effect. However, we generally use "homemade" Ranch dressing, which means we use the powdered stuff mixed in with mayo and milk per the instructions on the package. However, if you want to have the very very best Ranch mixture, this is what you should do. Mix one package Ranch Dip (not dressing) with 1 C milk and 1 C mayo. It'll be a runny sort of "dressing." We discovered this by accident when I bought dip once instead of dressing, and it is the best. I don't know why it's better than regular Ranch, but it is.

2 chicken breasts, cut into bit sized-cubes
4 strips bacon
Ranch dressing (see note above), about 1/2-1 C, though I never measure
4 C spinach, chopped or shredded by hand
4 rolls, bagels, or hamburger buns
mayo, pesto, and/or cheddar (optional)

In a skillet, cook bacon until fairly crisp. Remove bacon from pan, but leave those lovely drippings.

Cook cubed chicken in the bacon drippings for a couple of minutes. Add Ranch dressing to the chicken and stir it around to coat the chicken. Stir this every minute or so until the chicken is entirely cooked (the dressing will get a little brown as it cooks with the chicken and some of the oils may separate out of the dressing, so don't freak out if that happens. You want your chicken to be brown at the end, not to have a coating of white Ranch dressing on it).

Throw spinach in the skillet and cook a minute or two more until it is wilted. Crumble bacon and add it back to the pan.

Scoop out the chicken mixture and put it on your sandwich bun of choice (we used a whole wheat version of these rolls, which were awesome. We also like bagels or sandwich buns or even hamburger buns). You can toast your roll first or not; both are good.

If you aren't completely freaked out by the amount of fat you've already witnessed in your pan (embrace it my friends; and serve the sandwiches with a big salad--that should make you feel better), you can put mayonnaise on your bun with a little cheddar, which is delicious. The other thing I really love with these sandwiches is a bit of pesto spread on the bun. Alternately, if you don't have pesto, you could throw a handful of well-chopped basil leaves and a chopped clove of garlic into the skillet when you add the spinach. If you like basil, this is very very butt-kickingly delicious, so do it, okay. Even if you hate basil, you might like this because it's subdued, but still delicious.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chicken Divan

Broccoli and cheese kinds of casseroles have gone and gotten a terrible name for themselves in the foody kingdom. In the foody kingdom people eat only lamb and arugula. Or home grown foods. Or "real" foods. Or any of a number of foods that I am truly not opposed to in any way. But sometimes when you consider what the average American is beginning to eat (hint: rhymes with dig smac or at the very best brozen finner) on a very very, almost daily basis, you remember that maybe sometimes it's okay if one of the foods in tonight's dinner didn't come from the farmer's market or have less than five ingredients in its ingredient list. Sometimes it's doing pretty good to turn out an actual dinner from your actual oven that did not come from a box (pizza, take out, or frozen dinner). Sometimes it's okay to hearken back to an earlier time when your frazzled mother/grandmother, who did not own a dishwasher and/or dryer, managed to flop some sort of fairly nutritious food onto the table every night. And sometimes it's good--wholesome even--just to run with that. Today we're running with that.

 And--truth be told--we could be doing so much worse. This recipe contains 2 large heads of broccoli, cheddar, chicken, and (here's its whole food undoing) mayonnaise (which could potentially be subbed out with or cream cheese to good effect, though I haven't tried it). It can be served over rice, farro, or barley to very very good effect. It's easy to pull together (it was one of the first foods I learned to make when Kip and I were first married and I didn't cook at all), has a definite comfort food aspect to it, and did not come from a box of any sort.

You made it with love. It didn't take your whole day. It tastes really really good. And you can enjoy it hot with those you love. Do so.

P.S. Don't ask me why it's called chicken divan. It just is.

Chicken Divan
makes 1 9x13 inch pan
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

3-4 chicken breasts
2 large heads broccoli
2 C mayonnaise
1/2-1 C chicken broth (unsalted)
3-4 C shredded cheddar cheese (I prefer sharp, but Kip likes this best with medium)
salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken breasts in water. Shred. (Alternately you could use some that you'd already roasted or cooked another day--you'll need a couple cups of it shredded.).

While your chicken is boiling, chop your broccoli and shred your cheese.

When chicken is done, take it out and shred it. Hold onto the water you boiled it in.

Put shredded chicken, broccoli, and half the cheese in a 9x13 inch pan. Add mayonnaise and mix it around. It will be a little thick.

Here's where you use that water you boiled the chicken in. Thicken it by boiling it and then adding a bit of cornstarch (1 Tbsp) mixed with 2 Tbsp water. Pour this into the boiling broth, stir, and let it thicken a bit. Pour some of this over your chicken/broccoli/cheese/mayo mixture. It will loosen it up and make it just a bit runnier. That's what you want--not soup, but not something super thick either. It'll look like this when all mixed in.

If you used chicken you already had or accidentally threw out your water, use a bit of low-sodium chicken broth, thicken it a bit, and throw it on.

Spread in pan. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cook at 375-400 degrees until cheese is melted and bubbly and edges are beginning to brown (20-30 minutes).

Serve over rice, farro, or barley.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chicken and Potatoes with Creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce

So crock pot meals are great when you're busy and all, but I realize that in order to make a crock pot meal, you have to think about it in the morning (or at least by early lunch). What's that all about, right? So for those of you who get to 4:00 o'clock and start thinking, "My tummy just growled, which means--wait--a meal-time is approaching; I have literally not thought about it until this moment, and soon my children will begin eating each other," then this meal is for you.

This meal is awesome because all the stuff goes into one pan and then that pan goes into the oven and then you can resume reading your book or breaking up fights over Candy Land or telling Tommy to stop licking the baby--whatever is your past time of choice. And then you'll get the pan out of the oven and, guess what? Dinner will be done. There will be meat, and potatoes, and healthy leafy greens, and a delicious sauce to pour over it all. Congratulations! You're a rock star and nobody had to smash a guitar or eat the baby.

Chicken and Potatoes with Creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce
adapted from here
Serves 6
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Cost: $8.35 ($1.55/serving)
chicken: $5.00, spinach: .60, potatoes: 1.00, butter: .65, chicken broth: .10, half and half: .15, Parmesan: .50, seasonings: .35

4-6 chicken breasts, depending on how well-endowed your chicken was (or bone-in skin-on thighs if dark meat is your thing)
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
3 Tbsp butter, melted
3 C spinach, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped
1 lb potatoes, diced into centimeter-sized cubes (peeled or not)

For the garlic Parmesan cream sauce:

1/4 C butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp flour
1 C chicken broth
1 tsp dried thyme (twice as much if using fresh)
1/2 tsp dried basil (twice as much if using fresh)
1/2 C half and half (or 1/4 C milk and 1/4 C cream)
1/2 C grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Season chicken with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. If you're feeling fancy, you can then melt 2 Tbsp butter in a skillet and sear the chicken on both sides. But if you're pressed for time, or can't bear thinking of dirtying that skillet, just skip this step and put the seasoned chicken in a 9x13 inch pan.

Now add the chopped spinach and pour the remaining butter over all of this. (If you already got out the skillet, you can cook the spinach in the butter in the skillet and then put it in the pan, but again this step is skip-able for the lazy at heart).

Chop your potatoes and put them in the pan with the chicken and spinach and butter.

To make the garlic Parmesan sauce:

Heat butter in a pot over medium heat. Add garlic cloves and cook until fragrant (30 seconds or so). Add flour and whisk until smooth. Let it cook about a minute. Add chicken broth, thyme, basil--whisking as you add them.  Add half and half and Parmesan, whisking away and let it cook for another minute or two until it is slightly thickened.

Pour this over the chicken, spinach, and potatoes.

Put in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes (longer if your chicken breasts are big or your potato cubes are big).

Take it out and serve.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Baked Chicken Spaghetti

It's time for another Secret Recipe Club recipe. I'm kind of excited because for the first time I got someone I know (not personally, but we look at each other's blogs). Kind of fun. I had Rebekah at Family, Food, and Fun. She likes kids, cooking, and hiking. Right up my alley. I managed to pin plenty of her recipes. The one I made for Secret Recipe club was called Chicken Spaghetti. Why did I pick it? Because I had one lonely chicken breast languishing in the freezer waiting for something in which to sing. And my family loves pasta. And even though I don't make as many casseroles (or casserole-like foods) as I could, I'm a firm believer in them. They are a great way to turn a hodgepodge of foods (even leftovers) into something awesome. And speaking of leftovers, this could really be an ideal meal for a leftover Tuesday. It does well with adaptation. You could probably throw in whatever vegetables, pasta, and cheeses you had. Then proceed with her base recipe. As I said, I love a good casserole. Rebekah's was especially appealing because you could use cream of whatever soup, but you didn't have to. And while I'm not opposed to cream of whatever soup in a pinch, I really love me a whole foods casserole.

Baked Chicken Spaghetti
adapted from Family, Food, and Fun
makes 1 9x13 pan (we halved it for and 8x8x)
Prep time: 30-40 minutes (if using leftovers, this will take 5 minutes)
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Cost: $5.10 (or about $.63/serving)
pasta: 1.00, chicken: 1.00, spinach: .35, cheese: 2.00, white sauce: .45, chicken broth: .30

Note on pasta: Rebekah used whole wheat. I went the low road and used regular. Also, I found that we didn't have any spaghetti (whaaat??? we always have spaghetti) so I used Radiatore)

Note on vegetables: Rebekah used onion, pimentos, and green pepper. Kip doesn't like those things, so I used 2 cups of baby spinach, chopped very small instead. I'd wager a host of different veggies would work well in this.

Note on cream of whatever soup: You can use it or you can make this simple white sauce: 4 Tbsp butter mixed with 4 Tbsp flour, then add 2 C milk and boil until thick, add salt and pepper. Rebekah has a more elaborate cream of recipe on her blog; here's the link. As a note, just making your own white sauce (5 minutes) is going to save you $1-2 dollars. It's $.45 as opposed to $1.00-2.00 for the canned soup.

Note on seasonings: I kept mine to simple salt and pepper, but Rebekah added 1 tsp seasoned salt, and a bit of cayenne.

Crunched for time: Use cream of chicken soup and canned chicken in this. Then throw in a can of drained vegetables (or pre-chopped vegetables) of your choice. It's not as cheap or as healthy, but it's better than a McDonald's run.

1 (13.25 oz) package spaghetti or angel hair (or other pasta)
2 1/2 C cooked chicken, packed
2 cans cream of chicken/mushroom soup
2 C shredded cheddar cheese
1 small onion, diced (or do as I did and add several sprinkles of onion powder)
2 C baby spinach, chopped very small
1 1/2-2 C chicken broth (as needed for consistency)
salt and pepper to taste
1 C shredded cheddar cheese (for topping)

Cook pasta in pot of salted water until al dente (seriously, don't get it to gloppy state; it's going to cook some more in the oven). (Alternately, you can use leftover spaghetti--3-4 cups.) Drain.

While the pasta's cooking, cook your chicken if you need to. I just boiled mine, then shredded it.

In bowl, combine cooked chicken, cream of whatever soup (or basic white sauce), 2 C shredded cheddar, onion (or powder), and spinach.

To this add cooked pasta and chicken broth. Start with 1 C of broth and add more as needed to get it to a consistency that you like--not soupy, but not to stiff. Add seasonings.

Spread in 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Add remaining 1 C cheese on top and return to oven until it's melted. (I put my one cup on at the beginning because I like mine to have a little color.)

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Butter Chicken

Let me tell you a funny thing about my husband. He doesn't like Indian food or Chinese food. Okay, that's not the funny thing. What's funny is that what he really doesn't like is food that is called Indian food or Chinese food. So if I say, "Hey I'm making this Indian dish tonight" I get that look--maybe you know the one--that look that says, "Really, woman, cause I don't remember that as part of our wedding vows." However, if I flop open a bag of chicken and add some tomato sauce, spices, a little cream, and serve it on rice, well then we're cool. "What's this," he might ask. And I say (trying to avoid eye contact), "Oh, it's just this little dish called, um, tomato-y chicken creamy stuff." And then he's like, "Okay." And then sometimes he's like, "It's a little spicy." But he just keeps eating. This is my life people. Lucky for me, butter chicken is actually called "butter chicken" (at least on all the Indian menus I've seen). I mean, how inocuous is that.

Him: "Whacha making?" 

Me: (able to maintain eye contact) "Oh, just some butter chicken." (innocent batting of the eyelashes)

Him: "Sounds good." 

Yeah. Because it is. Dang good. It's not too hard either. 

Butter Chicken

adapted from Mostly Food and Crafts

Serves 4

Prep time: 15-20 minutes

Cook time: 30-40 minutes

Cost: $4.70 (served with simple white rice and peas, this meal comes up to about $1.50-1.70/person, although portions are not teenager sized and prices are based off of Aldi.)

chicken: 3.00, butter: .30, onion: .15, tomato sauce: .75, yogurt: .20, all those crazy spices: .30

Note on marinade: I'm not a big marinator (not a word, I know). I usually just make the marinade right before and let it sit while I get the rice going. This might be even better if you marinate, but I never think about it far enough ahead. 

Note on sauce: You can use tomato sauce or tomato puree. If you use sauce, be sure to use less salt at first and then taste it and add more at the end if necessary. 

For the Marinade:

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp ginger powder

4 cloves minced garlic

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp lemon juice

3-4 medium chicken breasts, diced

For the Sauce:

5 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced (or finely finely grated if you've got onion-haters among you)

15 oz tomato sauce

1/4 C plain yogurt

1 Tbsp garam masala

1 tsp salt

dash cayenne

Combine marinade ingredients and pour over diced chicken. Marinate if you actually thought about this more than two hours before dinner (and give yourself a pat on the back while you're at it). 

When you're ready to make this, heat a large skillet and dump the chicken and marinade into the pan. Cook chicken until browned, then remove it from the pan and set aside. 

Add butter to that same pan. Melt it and add onions. Cook until they're getting soft (five minutes). Add chicken, any accumulated juices, and the remaining ingredients (tomato sauce, yogurt, garam masala, salt, and cayenne). Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. It should thicken somewhat. If it doesn't, increase the heat at the end and let it boil for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. [Quick tip: If you're rushed for time, turn up the heat at the beginning to boiling, but stir it very frequently. You're dinner will be done in 10-15 minutes instead of 30, BUT you will have to give it your full attention instead of just letting it sit and simmer.]

Serve over rice. You can add cilantro to the top, which is really yummy. You can also add some peas at the end of cooking. This is very yummy too. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Forty Clove Roast Chicken--One Pot

Gardens can be maddening. One year you get a whole bunch of beans, but the bugs get all your squash. The next year the squash might be thriving, but the squirrels carry off your tomatoes. There are the years you get too much of something to eat it all. And there are the years you don't seem to get much of anything at all.

Last year my garden was awful. It was a ton of work and barely produced anything. The squirrels discovered the tomatoes and ate every single one--or rather I should say they took a bite out of every single one. My squash just sat there looking infected with something. The raccoons knocked over all the corn, but the ears were super tiny anyway so whatevs. And for all that, I weeded and sweated. I was almost ready to give it all up. But--as so often happens with gardens--this spring gave me a funny little consolation prize. I'd planted a bunch of garlic the year before and harvested some, but before I could harvest the rest, I'd let it die back to the point where I no longer knew where it was. Then, this spring, up it popped--full, awesome, prolific, and ready for eating for absolutely no effort at all on my part. Nature can certainly be a harsh mistress, but that doesn't mean she can't be gracious when she wants to.

(yeah, I braided it cause I'm awesome)

Except, you know--what do you do with dozens of bulbs of garlic if you don't have a vampire problem in your neighborhood (which, to my knowledge, we don't)? Especially if you don't want to ward off your neighbors and friends (and, uh, spouse). Well, this Forty Clove Chicken is a great start.

You roast it for nearly an hour and a half, which takes all the edge off the garlic, while infusing the chicken with something deeply flavorful and rich. I actually ate the somewhat caramelized garlic on the side as a veggie (with no ill effect on my love life). And the chicken--I really just couldn't believe how the roasting had transformed it. I was concerned about the long roasting time--this is a cut up chicken--I was sure it was going to come out leathery and tough. Nope. Not in the slightest. Not even the small pieces of meat, like the wings and drumsticks. It was all tender, moist, and deeply flavorful without being offensive to vampires, or at least your loved ones. The other great thing was that I don't usually like my chicken with skin--mostly because the skin sucks up all the flavor and leaves the actual meat kind of boring. Not with this--the long cooking time and many garlic cloves just suffuse the meat with flavor. Seriously, it's awesome.

And even though the cooking time is a little long (especially for summer--sorry--we've had some really cool days), the prep time is about five minutes (I love you five-minute-prep-time). And even though you do need 40 cloves of garlic, you don't have to peel them (go on, do your happy dance). The peels come off during cooking or soften so significantly that they can be eaten.

Bonus: If you like garlic bread, you can press the cooked garlic into a paste, add to butter, and spread. I didn't; I just ate them. But garlic butter would be delicious.

Forty Clove Roast Chicken--One Pot
adapted from 365 Ways to Cook Chicken
serves 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 90 minutes
Cost: $11.20
butter/oil: .15, chicken: 10.00 (this is a humanely raised chicken--you could get for half as much if you buy a normal store chicken), garlic: 1.00, other: .05

2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
40 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 C water

Preheat oven to 350.

In a Dutch oven, melt butter in oil. Add chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until golden. This takes about 10 minutes

Add garlic and stir to coat (mine were pretty crammed in there, but it got them all a bit of seasoning). Sprinkle with lemon juice, thyme, salt, pepper, and 1/4 C water.

Cover tightly and bake for 75-90 minutes (mine only took 75). Let rest for about 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Dumb Easy Dinner: Barbecups

I don't know how you could possibly not make a dinner with a name as cute as Barbecups. I mean, come on, it's adorable.

 Also, these are very easy. I should warn you, however, that these are not a perfect whole food. You're going to be using some biscuits or croissants out of a can. If that bothers you feel free to make a batch of your own little biscuit dough from scratch. Just know that that will make these a little less dumb easy.

I should also warn you that these don't involve a vegetable (unless you count BBQ sauce as a vegetable, which you probably shouldn't, but I won't judge you if you do). To rectify that you can just use a bagged salad or--my husband's favorite option--open up a can of corn. I know that sounds super lame, but it will totally work and be delicious. You could also add olives to these if olives are your thing.

Barbecups
makes 12 (can make more if they're tiny)
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes if you cook the chicken
Cost: $4.75
croissants: 2.00, chicken: 2.00, cheese: .50, bbq: .25

Note: If you want to make this incredibly fast, you can use canned chicken (that's been drained). I'm not going to lie--it's not as good. But it's very fast.

Note: You can used browned beef in place of the chicken. You'll probably need about 1/2 pound.

2 packages croissant dough (you know, the one in the tubes); you could also use biscuit dough
2 breasts shredded chicken (if you're chicken breasts are huge, you only need one)
3/4 C barbeque sauce
1 C shredded cheddar cheese

If you need to, cook your chicken breasts.

While your chicken breasts are cooking, open your croissants and lay them out as rectangles. Cut squares big enough to fit into the muffin portion of a muffin tin. Press them into the muffin tins.

When the chicken is cooked, shred it. A quick way to do this is to put them in your Kitchenaid if you have one--use the paddle mixer and it will shred that warm chicken breast.

Add barbeque sauce to your chicken breasts.

Put a spoonful of chicken/BBQ into each muffin tin. Top with cheese. That's it. Bake it according to the package instructions. And add some veggies to the side if you're feeling righteous.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Leftover Night: Chicken Rice Wraps

This was a real winner of a leftover night. It was soooo good. Granted we had some really good players this week: leftover chicken tikka masala, a bit of avocado, and even some cilantro on hand.

Here's the cast of characters:

We had cilantro, 4-5 canned artichoke hearts, a little bit of brown rice, chicken tikka masala, 1/4 of an avocado, and basmati rice. We also had part of a cauliflower head that I forgot to include in the picture. In all truthfulness, we had some other stuff too, like some leftover spaghetti sauce and some leftover mac and cheese. I didn't take a picture because I knew I wouldn't use them for this meal, but next week I think I'll take a picture of all our leftovers so you can get an idea of what I end up choosing to put together.

I knew these things would be pretty good put together, though I wasn't sure how the artichoke hearts would do. (I ended up not really even noticing they were there--not sure if that's a good thing or not). I was also a little worried because I'd planned to add sour cream to this (we had had a few tablespoons that I knew were nearing expiration), but apparently Kip had eaten them with his chicken the night before. I was worried we'd need some kind of a sauce. In the end, this was just fine with the seasoning from the chicken. However, a little Ranch dressing (a home-mixed kind; we don't usually love the bottled Ranch) drizzled on was pretty dang good too. Finally, I knew I'd need to hide the cauliflower because I knew it wouldn't go over well, but good heavens, you can't just eat rice and chicken for dinner. Okay, you can, but I feel better about myself when I add more vegetables to the mix.

To make the wraps:

1. Heat a small bit of oil in a frying pan.

2. Chop your cilantro (a generous handful), artichoke hearts, and cauliflower (I chopped my cauliflower into tiny tiny pieces because it was my purely evil intention to hide it in that rice--worked like a charm by the way). Shred your chicken.

3. Add cauliflower or any other firm vegetables you're using to the oil. Add a bit of salt. Stir fry until tender. Add cooked rice to the pan. I used all the brown rice and some of the white rice. Let it sort of fry a la fried rice. Add chicken to the pan. Let it heat through. Add any leafy stuff. I added the cilantro here, but you could also add spinach leaves if you've got some of that hanging around looking pitiful.

4. You can serve this as is, or wrap it as we did in a tortilla shell. Serve with avocado slices and perhaps a drizzle of Ranch dressing.

Note: The chicken tikka masala was very flavorful and spicy. If you're working with chicken or meat that is less punchy, you might want to add some appropriate spices to the oil at the beginning.

The verdict:

We liked this better than we'd liked the original meal of chicken tikka masala. The rice toned down the spicy chicken and the vegetables mixed in/hidden in the rice added a nice something something to the meal. Kip wanted more even after it was gone. Awesome.